


Doctor's Orders

by ThePathLessTrekked



Category: Star Trek, Star Trek: Alternate Original Series (Movies)
Genre: Ficlet, Fluff, M/M, glasses fic
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-03-01
Updated: 2014-03-01
Packaged: 2018-01-14 05:21:06
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 754
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1254355
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ThePathLessTrekked/pseuds/ThePathLessTrekked
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>There are people who are very good at keeping things. They have drawers for PADDS, shelves for trinkets, pots for plants. They’ll have knick knacks on bedsides and some might even wear things like watches. And because they care about these things they are careful with them, they clean them and maintain them. </p><p>Jim Kirk is not one of these people.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Doctor's Orders

There are people who are very good at keeping things. They have drawers for PADDS, shelves for trinkets, pots for plants. They’ll have knick knacks on bedsides and some might even wear things like watches. And because they care about these things they are careful with them, they clean them and maintain them. 

Jim Kirk is not one of these people. 

It’s not for a lack of trying. More times than he can count Jim had decided to keep a plant in his sad little apartment in Iowa. He even tried again once he was at the academy. They all suffered the same fate: a few weeks without water and then a trash can. 

In his first year at the academy Jim went through three PADDS. One he dropped, completely innocent, it could have happened to anyone. The second one he threw onto his bed in a fit of annoyance over an assignment. It skipped over the bed and into the wall on the other side. The corner of the PADD left a small dent in the wall, the floor faired better by simply breaking the screen. The last PADD had actually been sitting on the bedside table in a perfectly safe place. Jim’s comm on the far side of it was the problem. One hangover, an early morning call and a misplaced elbow later he had his third broken PADD of the year. 

He has dropped more dishes than he’d care to admit, lost more keys than he’ll ever let Bones know, and misplaced at least 6 watches before he stopped trying to wear one. They were outdated technology he had insisted. Bones pointed out that he hadn’t questioned why Jim stopped wearing one and that, perhaps, he was being a bit defensive. 

It wasn’t that Jim was careless, he was just a little clumsy and somewhat forgetful about everyday things. Bones knew this. He probably knew this better than anyone else. Yet he couldn’t quite fathom why it was so hard for Jim to keep track of just this one, kind of important, thing.

“You’re going to be blind before you turn thirty Jim.” Len grumbled down at the reading from the Captain’s eye exam. “You’re straining the hell out of your eyes. Why aren’t you wearing reading glasses?” 

Jim didn’t look nearly as guilty as he should. He gave a one shoulder shrug.

“I always end up messing them up. I still have a pair somewhere, but it wasn’t worth trying to wear them anymore.” The doctor gave a long suffering sigh as he put in an order for a new pair of glasses.

“The more you strain your eyes when you’re trying to read the more tired they are when you try to focus normally. That’s why you squint. All the time. Alright, you’re good to go.”

When Jim hopped off the biobed and sauntered back towards the bridge Len was positive that the captain planned to do absolutely nothing about his vision. 

 

The next day he shoved a pair of lenses into the other man’s hands. Jim opened his mouth to protest.

“Kid, wear the damn glasses. Your squinting is making _my_ head hurt.” And Jim did wear them. He wore them in his quarters and in the rec room. He even wore them on the bridge. Every time he wore them, there was one more scratch on the arm, a near constant smudge on the left lens, a piece of tape around one of the temples. 

A month and a half after Leonard had forced the glasses on Jim he came into the younger man’s room to ask about a supply pick up at the next colony. He stopped short when Jim looked up to see who had walked in. 

The glasses perched on Jim’s nose were at least half an inch lower on the right than the were on the left. The left lens had a thick and fractured crack running diagonally from nose piece to temple and the arm on the right was being held in place with what Len hoped was tape and not bubble gum. It was adorable. Pathetic, but adorable.

“Jim.”  

Jim waited. 

Bones didn’t say anything. 

Finally the captain prompted. 

“Yes, Bones?” 

“Just... take off the glasses.”  Jim tried and failed to hide his smirk. 

“I’m supposed to wear them, doctor’s orders.” 

“Dammit, man. Just take off the god damned glasses. You look ridiculous.” Adorable. He might look a little adorable. But Leonard would rather watch him squint then ever admit that. 

 


End file.
